tl;dr Has technology made our life too easy despite many economical advantages?

The other day my brother, Mike, and I were talking to our local priest concerning matters Orthodox when Fr. Jim (the priest) starts talking about how he is trying to move away from technology (like his iPhone) and he mentions how I am the "King of Texting."

Mike says something to the effect of how texting is what is popular today. I was going to say something to the effect of how much easier it is to send a simple text message than it is to make a phone call, but immediately thought better of it. Later, at home I thought (as I often have) is life getting too easy?

Before we had phones there was a thing called the post office for communication with friends and family. Now we have land lines, computers with internet access, cell phones with internet access.

Before we had the internet for research we actually had to go down to the library and pull out books. Now we have wikipedia and all kinds of references at our disposal.

Granted, all of this technology has benefited many, like corporations who can expand business and hire (supposedly, and in a good economy) more people. Not to mention the capability to teach even more people about Christ!

Sometimes, I feel as though all of this technology has made us a lazy generation, what with watching TV during dinner instead of having a family gathering at the dinning table, and video games such as football instead of going outside to play football. It seems like the art of going outside and getting dirty is being lost, it seems like children these days are not as active as they used to be - in playing games instead of being outside riding bikes.

Yes, I am guilty of using technology to make my life easier, but - since I love to be outside and go camping and hiking - I like to think that if one massive EMP hit the world I would be able to survive with out my facebook.

Can it increase our quality of life and make various parts of our lives 'easier'? Sure, but I would hardly say that it has made life too easy.

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As a result of a thousand million years of evolution, the universe is becoming conscious of itself, able to understand something of its past history and its possible future.-- Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS

I want a cannon arm installed so I'm like Mega Man. My life would be way easier then.

In all good time, my friend. We shall have arms like Swiss Army knives. Cannons, hands, spoons, a toothpick...

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As a result of a thousand million years of evolution, the universe is becoming conscious of itself, able to understand something of its past history and its possible future.-- Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS

For me... I don't know that technology has made my life easier per se, but it has certainly made it harder for me to focus on spiritual things. I read things like The Ascetic Podvig of Living in the World, or What is Orthodoxy? or The Theory of Knowledge of St. Isaac the Syrian, and I realise how short I fall. I'm not going to launch into a "I'm the worst sinner ever!" post, but I do admit that I don't do all that I could. It's not about living like some saint I read about, I'm just talking about simple stuff that I don't do that it would be fairly easy for me to do. Even in the simple, daily stuff I fail miserably.

The computer is one of my worst enemies... exactly because it is constantly drawing my attention. Hardly an hour goes by that I don't check the computer when I'm home. Any email? Any new posts on OC.net? I need to know, I need to check! I can barely take standing for half an hour at prayer, but I can spend hours on end on the computer doing nothing important. Then there's the TV. I try to limit what I watch, but still it draws my attention quite a bit. Even when I'm not watching it I still have it on for background noise. So much for cultivating silence, heh. I don't own a cell phone, I don't own a HDTV, I just recently bought an MP3 player... I am fairly moderate when it comes to purchasing new things. But don't take my computer away from me. My old computer died earlier this year. I went out the next day and bought a new one. I had to. There's no living without one for me. So, for the upcoming fast I'm seriously thinking about trying to limit myself to an hour a day on OC.net, to see how that goes. It couldn't kill me, could it? I've gone months without a computer before... even if it seems like it was a lifetime ago.

The computer is one of my worst enemies... exactly because it is constantly drawing my attention. Hardly an hour goes by that I don't check the computer when I'm home. Any email? Any new posts on OC.net? I need to know, I need to check! I can barely take standing for half an hour at prayer, but I can spend hours on end on the computer doing nothing important. Then there's the TV. I try to limit what I watch, but still it draws my attention quite a bit. Even when I'm not watching it I still have it on for background noise. So much for cultivating silence, heh. I don't own a cell phone, I don't own a HDTV, I just recently bought an MP3 player... I am fairly moderate when it comes to purchasing new things. But don't take my computer away from me. My old computer died earlier this year. I went out the next day and bought a new one. I had to. There's no living without one for me. So, for the upcoming fast I'm seriously thinking about trying to limit myself to an hour a day on OC.net, to see how that goes. It couldn't kill me, could it? I've gone months without a computer before... even if it seems like it was a lifetime ago.

I know the feeling with the computer thing. I've gotten so addicted since I went to grad school, because I always have to be on it writing papers, and it's just so hard not to wonder over to the forums or social networking sites all the time. I've gotten super addicted, but after tomorrow I think I'm just going to get offline for a solid week or two and purge my brain. I'll go for a walk in the woods or something.

The computer is one of my worst enemies... exactly because it is constantly drawing my attention. Hardly an hour goes by that I don't check the computer when I'm home. Any email? Any new posts on OC.net? I need to know, I need to check! I can barely take standing for half an hour at prayer, but I can spend hours on end on the computer doing nothing important. Then there's the TV. I try to limit what I watch, but still it draws my attention quite a bit. Even when I'm not watching it I still have it on for background noise. So much for cultivating silence, heh. I don't own a cell phone, I don't own a HDTV, I just recently bought an MP3 player... I am fairly moderate when it comes to purchasing new things. But don't take my computer away from me. My old computer died earlier this year. I went out the next day and bought a new one. I had to. There's no living without one for me. So, for the upcoming fast I'm seriously thinking about trying to limit myself to an hour a day on OC.net, to see how that goes. It couldn't kill me, could it? I've gone months without a computer before... even if it seems like it was a lifetime ago.

I know the feeling with the computer thing. I've gotten so addicted since I went to grad school, because I always have to be on it writing papers, and it's just so hard not to wonder over to the forums or social networking sites all the time. I've gotten super addicted, but after tomorrow I think I'm just going to get offline for a solid week or two and purge my brain. I'll go for a walk in the woods or something.

Me too! My book should already be in print by now, but I get sidetracked so easily by this forum! But, on the other hand, this forum has helped me formulate my ideas and hone my arguments. So, I guess it's a double-edged sword.

I think that's the deal with most if not all forms of technology. They bring us both conveniences and hiderances. But the bottom line is that technology is absolutely impotent to help us with the problem of sin.

Selam

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"God is a consuming fire. And His fire is love."+ Gebre Menfes Kidus +

My life as a university teacher becomes harder and harder as this so-called "technology" develops. Students don't read anything anymore. Reason, logic, coherence, comprehension - all that is steadily going down the tube. Young people are becoming unicellular texting organisms interested in things "cool" - bright moving images and rap rhythms. While teachers are trying to meet the demands of the day and adopt new information technologies for the classroom, the mere idea of "classroom," school, studies, learning is becoming void of its meaning. Students' attention span is swiftly shortening and their retention of knowledge approaches zero.

I still think technology has made life too easy in some aspects. Think about students who don't comprehend what it taught in class, why should they? they can find it on the internet and do "just about as good a job." I think many things today teaches us to be impatient, can't wait for a call? get a cellphone! can't wait to share something with somebody? share it on facebook. I believe we have become a "right now" type of people; this could just be me, this could just be in the US, but it seems like nobody has patience for anything these days, why should we? we can get every thing at the touch of a button.

Personally, I have to remind myself to be patient many times, I have gotten better through the years. I still find that life, at least with the new generation seems to be way too easy and that the younger ones are not learning the value of hard work. This may be different within Orthodox families, I really don't know as I am very new to Orthodoxy (my chrismation is next month). I hope I can teach my children that hard work pays off and not to rely too much on things to make life "easier."

Texting and the internet have not made my life any easier. Now cell phones have- since my car is 14 years old the AAA guy and I are old pals.I'm still waiting for the robot housecleaner - I'd rather have that than a phone that surfs the internet, takes pictures and checks email.

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"If but ten of us lead a holy life, we shall kindle a fire which shall light up the entire city."

Impatience brought on by technology is partially due to 'acclimatisation', but I would argue that much has to do to ignorance of specific technology's foundations. Unfortunately, a fanatical devotion to 'encapsulation' has left the majority of the population completely ignorant to the technology they are using, which is truly disturbing. I am hardly expecting everyone to become computer scientists and electrical engineers, but with technology becoming more and more integrated into our lives, it is a necessity that we all begin to understand it. Next time your internet is running a little slow, think of the nature of wireless communications, routing protocols, functional bandwidth, the sheer amount of information you are sending and receiving, and the distances that data is travelling. Or when you start up your desktop and it is take a couple seconds too long for you, remember that your processor can theoretically perform 10 to 60 billion floating point operations a second. After you "press [that] button", it is likely millions or billions of operations are taking place.

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As a result of a thousand million years of evolution, the universe is becoming conscious of itself, able to understand something of its past history and its possible future.-- Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS

I am a 64 years old visual artist; that is, everything having to do with my life is gear'd towards observing the outside and the inner worlds and then expressing what I've observed, onto canvas/paper/wood. Of course, I also have a full time job as most artists/writers/composers/dancers have to have a job in order to pay the rent (something like only 2% of all types of artists in North America, make a living at their art). So...this means, in order to me to utilize the small amt of time I have left in a day, I have to consider my distractions and then get rid of as many as possible. With that in mind, I've recently gotten rid of my TV, I don't have a computer at home, I never 'chat' on the phone. What I found in doing so, is that I'm much more creative because the outside 'noise' of technology doesn't enter into my life. I once had a dream that Christ came to me and said, "Get rid of your technology, otherwise you can't receive my messages'. Amazing. The only problem I have is that without technology one relaxes the nervous system; there aren't too many people around like that (that I can communicate with)!

No, life is not easy but it is very complicated because of many reasons. But I like to live this type of life because if problems don't come in our life then how will we understand the value of the life and happiness.

It makes some lives harder. The easier this become, the more crap 'they' can make you do in a day.

Yup.

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"For, by its immensity, the divine substance surpasses every form that our intellect reaches. Thus we are unable to apprehend it by knowing what it is. Yet we are able to have some knowledge of it by knowing what it is not." - St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra gentiles, I, 14.

Technology *can* make material life easier and more confortable. But not necessarily better. I don't have a TV or a car and I like it. On the other hand, I do work with IT and spend a lot of time in front of a computer. Also, I like hot water in my shower and confortable clothes (which *is* technology too). I brush my teeth and there is technology. I buy pre-made food and that's technology too.

Most of us wouldn't stand a couple of days in old Rome. We do live with luxuries that emperors wouldn't imagine in their wildest dreams even if we belong to lower economical classes in the West. We *have* become far too self-indulgent, and that is a major concern for me.

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Many Energies, 3 Persons, 2 Natures, 1 God, 1 Church, 1 Baptism, and 1 Cup. The Son begotten only from the Father, the Spirit proceeding only from the Father, Each glorifying the Other. The Son sends the Spirit, the Spirit Reveals the Son, the Father is seen in the Son. The Spirit spoke through the Prophets and Fathers and does so even today.

I find my computer breaks down much more often than my fountain pen. Maintenance costs are also higher and things are more complex with security, new programs, etc. I find there's more, not less, complication to life with technology.

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